Threats of another Civil War from an Easterner!

I read an article on the Sierra Express Media online tabloid titled “Another Civil War Kailahun Cries! My heart almost missed a beat because those were scary words. When Foday Sankoh started his senseless insurrection, in the name of the RUF war from the Eastern province against the APC regime in 1991, he, and many Easterners, thought it was a genuine move that would paralyze and end Momoh’s regime. Indeed, with the help of the “Khaki Boys” (NPRC), it did, but not without the loss of many lives. The war did affect Momoh and his ministers but not as much as it did to the poor and defenseless people of Kailahun and the rest of Sierra Leone. Momoh’s ministers and many other government officials left the country before the brutalities reigned supreme in the entire country. (Photo: Brima Turay)

Almost nineteen years after the said war, many parts of the country, the Eastern Province particularly, have still not fully recovered from the destruction left behind. Today, here is someone in the name of Mr. Barbar A. Ngobeh, suggesting that a civil strife might erupt because the current APC government neglects the eastern province in terms of infrastructural development. I was wondering if Mr. Ngobeh remembers that the SLPP was in power for 11 years after the “Khaki Boys”. I also wonder if he knows that the SLPP regime also had the opportunity to complete every development project in the eastern province within the 11-year period that they were in office.  During those 11 years, I did not hear Mr. “Revolutionary” Ngobeh threatening a civil war as the only way of drawing the attention of this very regime that he faithfully supported for all of those 11 years.

It is very concerning that; Dr. Sama Banya and John Oponjo Benjamin are not making any public statements against such senseless threats of a civil unrest from one of their own. Are these not the kind of things about which these two self-styled leaders should be very watchful and come against very strongly? Of course, not, because they are busy, doing everything it takes to usurp power in 2012; and if that means tarnishing the image of the country in the eyes of the international community or planning another insurrection against the very people they want to rule, so be it. The story about so-called rape and brutality against SLPP supporters still makes headlines in the local and online media; but the threats of a civil strife against a now peaceful republic like Sierra Leone will not make it in the SLPP New People Online tabloid or any of their media outlets. If this is what they call democracy, I am at a loss – and a very serious loss that is!

The peaceful and hard working people of the eastern province know better than to encourage another civil unrest from that region. So, Mr. “Rebellion” Ngobeh, I advise you to take your fight somewhere else this time and stop reminding easterners about what you and others brought down on them during your heartless rebellion perpetrated by your support of Foday Sankoh and his killing machines. We have a better way of addressing our problems and that does not include your senseless call for a civil strife. Your representatives in parliament should be concerning themselves with pushing bills and advocating strongly for development in that region of the country. If 11 years of SLPP neglect of the eastern province was not enough to instigate you into making threats of a civil unrest, I do not see why just two years of APC rule should make you go “bananas!”

We do not play by your book of hypocrisy Mr. “Rebellion” because, as we have come to realize, the SLPP seems not to have any other way of bouncing back to power but through the barrel. Sierra Leone will be watching you very attentively. Our hard-earned democracy cannot be compromised by senseless thoughts of a civil unrest coming from someone who does not seem to have any remorse for collaborating with Foday Sankoh to perpetrate carnage in the east and other parts of the country. Mr. Ngobeh, you would definitely have to be Foday Sankoh’s collaborator to suggest a civil unrest in our country at this time. Your energy and power to form a coalition for a civil unrest from the eastern province should have been directed at piling pressure on your elected officials in the east so that they could push for meaningful change in that province. People like you, Mr. Ngobeh, do not belong in this planet where we have so much trouble already. You should go to the planet mercury and burn yourself out!

Mr. Ngobeh is suggesting that the hardship in the eastern province is the direct result of the current government firing (sacking) sons and daughters of Kailahun District from government positions. Does this therefore mean Mr. Ngobeh that, in the 11 years of SLPP rule these positions have never been occupied by Sierra Leoneans from other regions? I am just curious! Please stop the blame game Mr. Ngobeh, because this time around, you will not succeed in playing one region or tribe against the other. Maybe you should ask John Benjamin who was the finance minister in the previous SLPP regime to tell you why the Eastern province was neglected for 11 years in their agenda of national development. Don’t you think asking this question to John Benjamin and Dr. Banya is a good place to start Mr. Ngobeh, if you are truly honest to yourself? 

I hope John Benjamin and Sama Banya will have something positive to say against these unfortunate threats to a country that they both profess to love and passionately care to develop! Did I just say John Benjamin and Dr. Sama Banya? I must be daydreaming because that is the last thing they will ever think of doing! I will say, so much for the unfortunate nomenclature of “Political Leadership” in our republic.

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